TIGERS TAMED: Hampton upsets top seed SSU in MEAC tournament

Savannah State University player # 22 Rashad Hassan goes up for a rebound during the first half of Wednesday night's game against Hampton University, during the 2012 MEAC Tournament, at LJVM, in Winston-Salem, NC.

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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. —With 2:38 left to play, top-seeded Savannah State appeared ready to mount one last surge that would help the Tigers overcome Hampton in their opening-round MEAC tournament game.

Preston Blackman hit two free throws to cut the deficit to 48-44. But on Hampton’s next possession, Christopher Tolson sliced past the defense and scored on a baseline drive to push the lead to six points and repel any hopes of a comeback.

The Tigers never recovered and their tournament title quest came to an abrupt halt in a 59-46 loss Wednesday at Joel Coliseum. Hampton advances to play North Carolina Central or Bethune-Cookman in the MEAC semifinals at 6 p.m. Friday.

“Our guys played as hard as they have all season,” said Savannah State coach Horace Broadnax. “It’s disappointing, but there’s no way that I’ll grade them on this game. When you consider how far this program has come and what these guys have done, it’s just remarkable. We couldn’t solve their 2-3 zone.”

In spite of the defeat, there is good news for the Tigers. As the MEAC’s regular-season champion, they earned an automatic bid to the National Invitational Tournament (pairings to be announced Sunday).

“Losing tonight was unfortunate; it’s not what we expected,” Broadnax said. “But there is still some season left. We’ll go back, regroup, reflect and get ready to play next week.”

With the Pirates’ 6-foot-8 center Danny Agbelese dominating the paint Wednesday night, points were hard to come by for the Tigers. Agbelese shut down the middle with eight blocked shots, and he altered at least 10 other shot attempts.

“We came out and played like we were too anxious,” Tigers forward Rashad Hassan said. “We could’ve done a better job of playing tougher inside and taking body contact.”

SSU (21-11) enjoyed a huge advantage on the glass and outrebounded the Pirates, 46-30. But its lack of shooting accuracy contributed heavily to its downfall. Blackman (12 points) was the only Tiger to score in double figures.

“All I tried to do was stay aggressive,” said Blackman, a junior guard. “The defense took away our main guys and I couldn’t get the ball to them like I wanted. We started getting (defensive stops), but they were able to come down and score and get the and-ones, that makes it very tough.”

The Tigers’ Deric Rudolph, the MEAC’s top 3-point shooter, was shackled and went 2-of-7 from behind the arc. Hassan, who eventually fouled out, also struggled with eight points on 3-of-9 field-goal shooting. The Tigers, who trailed 23-22 at intermission, managed to stay in contention until late in spite of their icy 27.1 percent shooting from the field.

“When we were able to cut it down to two or three points, we just couldn’t lock down on defense like we needed to,” Broadnax said. “We were in it, but I think our guys began to press a little bit too much and we couldn’t make it all the way back.”

Eighth-seeded Hampton entered this game with a chip of sorts on its shoulders. The Pirates (12-20) didn’t have the best of regular seasons but are determined to win back-to-back conference tournament championships.

“I’ve told my team all along that they are built for the tournament,” said Hampton coach Edward Joyner Jr. “At the end of the day, in order for you to get to where you want to be, you have to win at this time of year. With this team, everything seems to start clicking in March.”

At times, particularly during a six-minute stretch in the second half, Tolson (16 points, eight rebounds, three assists, three steals) was close to unstoppable. Most of his points total came at the juncture when he scored 13 points in a row for the Pirates.

Tolson wasn’t a solo artist. He got help from Darrion Pellum (12 points and six rebounds) and Wesley Dunning (10 points and seven rebounds).

Hampton started slowly but heated up sufficiently in the second half by converting 55 percent of its shots.

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Savannah State's loss to Hampton in Winston-Salem, NC was very painful, at least to me it was. But just as in the case of Georgia Southern in its second round loss in Ashville, NC in last week's Southern Conference Tourney game, this loss should prove to be a learning experience for the young Tigers. Fortunately, SSU doesn't have to wait until next November to show that they learned from it. It is hard to believe that the Tigers could outrebound a team by such a margin and still lose. But you've got to score points somewhere, and for SSU, their bread and butter 3 point shots just wouldn't fall. Had they done so, then Big Mr. Agbelese and his Hampton buddies couldn't have camped out in the paint all night, blocking shot after shot with that 23 zone. It forced the Tigers out of their comfort zone at the worse time in the season. But if they are going to be a championship caliber team ( and I believe that they will), SSU has got to find a way to score on the inside when the outside game fails, even when it becomes obvious that the officiating is skewed in favor of the opponent (It was pathetic. There is a bit of jealousy among the MEAC brethren toward this "Newcomer", and it showed in some of the officiating).
As Coach Broadnax said, it is really hard to come down on the Tigers after a loss like this when you look at the whole body of work this season. After being an independent for years, this is the first season in a conference since the old days of Division II SIAC, and to amass the record that the Tigers have, winning 21 games and going 14-3 against conference foes, nothwithstanding winning the regular season MEAC championship and a trip to the National Invitational, it's hard to ask for more. It should actually have SSU basketball fans licking their chops at what the future may hold.
So the Tigers will regroup and get ready to head for Kansas City, MO and the NIT. Hopefully, they have gotten the playoff gitters behind them, and will be able to showcase the great team that they really are. GO TIGERS !!

Savannah State did come out tentative in the first have. The second half they became more aggressive on the offensive side but the officiating was pretty one sided in this game. Not so much the amount of calls for Hampton but the timing of foul calls were very suspect. The MEAC better take notice next year because the whole team is coming back. It will be interesting to see who they are paired against in the NIT. My family and I will be watching.